Kaala Deiny - A Tale of Friendship
by Croco
Summary: A little girl finds a lost deinonychus hatchling and their lives are changed forever


Kaala Deiny  
By Jason Chilton (Croco)  
  
  
They were walking along the trail on the western bank of the Polongo River on their way to the town of Bonabba. There was a somewhat younger man with his wife of about the same age and their six-year old daughter Ryinna. All were sitting in a wagon that was being towed by their triceratops who had the tip of her front horn missing. Suddenly, Ryinna hears something in the nearby bushes.  
  
"Nobby, stop!" the little girl shouted and jumped out, much to the dismay of her parents.  
  
"Ryinna!" her mother shouts, "Come back to the wagon this instant! You don't know what is out there!" But the curious Ryinna ignores her mother's warning and goes into the foliage to look for what was in there. A few minutes later, she comes back out. But this time, a young deinonychus, who had to be no more than three months old, came out behind her.  
  
^Mama?^ it says in its native tongue. Ryinna looks confused.  
  
"I'm not your mother if that's what you're saying, little one," Ryinna said gently as she understood some of the deinonychus language. Her father looks down at the chick, then turns to the mother.  
  
"Mira, do you know what that is?" he said.  
  
"Yes I do Brock. That is a wild deinonychus hatchling. I don't know if Ryinna should be playing with it." But while this is going on, Ryinna continues to try and befriend the little saurian, who told her that he had lost his mother and nestmates.  
  
"I will take you back home with me," she told him, "First we're gonna stop in a place called Bonabba and then we will go back to my home." The chick jumped up into her arms and looked her over, taking in her scent as well.  
  
^Friend?^ he said, looking as cute as he could.  
  
"Yes," Ryinna said, "I am your friend, and I will forever be your friend until the World Beneath calls us." He nuzzled her and she decided to call him "Riojay," which meant 'friend' in Deinonychusian.  
  
The weeks went by and the bond between Ryinna and Riojay became closer and closer. One day while Ryinna was helping her mother Mira make breakfast, Riojay came up and pounced on her when she didn't expect it. She ended up dropping a piece of fruit she had and the young saur curiously sniffed it. Then he ate it, making a funny face after he swallowed.  
  
"Kaala,"(Sweet) he said. Ryinna looked up at him.  
  
"Yes that is sweet," she told him, "It's a mango." He then sniffed her.  
  
"Kaala," he said and nuzzled her. Ryinna looked surprised  
  
"Are you calling me 'Kaala?'" she asked. Riojay bobbed his head excitedly. "I'm afraid that is not my name." she told him. "My name is Ryinna. Can you say 'Ryinna?'"  
  
"Kaa-la!" he said, "Kaa-LA!" She giggled in delight as he purred and nuzzled.  
  
As time went by, the young deinonychus started to call Ryinna "Kaala." And Ryinna accepted it as her name, telling all her friends to call her Kaala as well. At the same time, Riojay was starting to learn a little bit of the human language as well. He could say things like "food," "water," "sleep," and could say the names of the other members of the family...Brock, Mira, and Nobella, which was the name of the triceratops they had. But to him, Ryinna was Kaala, and that would never change. Every time her parents called her, Riojay would follow her scent while yelling "Kaala! Kaala!"  
  
One of their favorite pasttimes was taking long walks along the beach while the sun went down. Of course, either one of her parents or Nobby would accompany her on these walks. They would walk for miles without end, with Kaala riding high on Riojay's back. Over the years, they discussed the possibilities of finding a dolphinback who had washed ashore. Kaala and "Rio," as she called him, had been together for more than three years when they went on their usual walk, but this time they were alone for the first time ever.  
  
Just as they hit the sand, Riojay sniffed the air and Kaala knew that he had spotted something suspicious.  
  
"What's the matter?" she asked.  
  
^Strange scent. Human,^ he told her. ^Go back?^  
  
"No. Let's go check it out." Kaala hopped off his back while she walked along the shore. She didn't suspect anything, only stopping to pick up a rock to throw into the foamy sea. Just then, Riojay came sprinting back to her.  
  
^Human!^ he shouted, ^Asleep on rocks!^ Kaala's eyes lit up.  
  
"Really! she said in an excited voice. "Let's go!" Kaala hopped on, but first she reminded Riojay not to speak in human as the person might be startled or scared. He nodded while he raced to where the person was.  
  
"C'mon Riojay!" she said, encouraging him to go faster. When they got to where the person, a young man in his late teens or early twenties, was lying, the girl's eyes lit up and a smile came across her face.  
  
"Oh boy!" she shouted as Riojay looked him over, "I've never come across a dolphinback before! I wonder if it's still alive." She kicked him in the side, and he let out a loud groan. The girl was even more excited than before as she hopped onto Riojay's back.  
  
"We gotta tell Dad about the dolphinback...he's gonna be surprised to see him still alive! Let's go Rio...as fast as you can!" and with that, they were gone. Even though only nine summers old, she had a feeling that this dolphinback would take her to far places in Dinotopia that she never knew existed. And as fate would have it, she was right, even though he would eventually become a Skybax rider.  
  
  
  
96 years later.....  
  
  
  
The ceremony in Sauropolis seemed to drag on forever as everyone was waiting for the announcement of the new Habitat Partner for the Jungle sector. Most of the jungles were in the Rainy Basin region, and that meant that a predator species would likely be the saurian in charge of that area. Just then, an old man approached the crowd.  
  
"Humans and saurians," he said, "the time has come to announce a new Habitat Partner for the Jungle sector." A pause. "We will dearly miss William and Bluestripe, as they had looked over the plant and animal life of the jungles of Dinotopia with a sense of pride, compassion, and dilligence that signifies the way Dinotopians do things. But as they have now gone to The World Beneath, it is time to choose a new Partner for the area." He turned away as a Skybax rider had just landed nearby and handed him a scroll. He examined it and turned to the crowd.  
  
"Would Kaala and Riojay please approach the stand," he said. Kaala, who at one-hundred and five summers had become a symbol of strength and maturity, gasped and jumped into Riojay's arms like a teenager, the joy evident in both of their faces as they both walked up. Kaala had spent many years studying the predator species of the Rainy Basin, twenty of them with Sasha Kadodjikian, a dolphinback who had become the first human ever to live in a wild raptor clan for an extended period of time eighty years earlier. She was disappointed that he and Swiftclaw, a Utahraptor, were not chosen while at the same time beaming with pride as they climbed the stairs to the stage. They were both shaking nervously while the man unrolled the scroll as they took to the stand. He then put something that looked like a banner on the stand.  
  
"Put your right hand on the banner," he told them. Kaala and Riojay put their right hands on the black banner. which had a palm tree on it and a raptor claw as the top ornament. He then read the scroll.  
  
"Kaala and Riojay, he said, "do you solemnly swear to dedicate your entire lives to the renewal of the jungles of Dinotopia?"  
  
"We do," was their simutanious response.  
  
"Do you swear to protect and respect the plant and animal life, defending them with your lives if necessary?"  
  
"We do."  
  
"Then by the power invested in me, I name you Kaala and you Riojay...the new Habitat Partners of the Jungle sector. Face your peers and be recognized." Everyone started to cheer loudly as Kaala took the banner and stood it up proudly. The Skybax rider was the first to congratulate them.  
  
"I knew you two would be chosen!" he said with joy as he hugged Kaala. "I'm so proud of you Kaala." Kaala backed away.  
  
"Why be proud of me?" she asked him. "This is just the culmination of my life's work." He put an arm around her.  
  
"Why be proud? Because I've been with you from the beginning...ever since that fateful day you and Rio found me on the beach, you've been a part of my life." Kaala was in shock. She looked hard into the rider's deep green eyes, the scars on his face stood out even more as she broke away and a tear started to flow from her eye.  
  
"Croco?!?" she said. All he did was nod and reveal a necklace which was made from the horn of ceratopsian origin.  
  
"It is!" she squealed and threw her arms around him, knocking him down.  
  
"Master Denison knew about it all along and chose me to deliver the news because he knew how much you meant to me," Croco told her while picking himself back up. "I have a feeling he and Cirrus aren't gonna make it that much longer, but I have yet to attain Master Rider status. Do you think I would make a good Habitat Partner?"  
  
"I think you would," Kaala said with a little glimmer. "I mean, you're head's always in the clouds anyway so I'd figure you might as well make it your life." Croco gave her a playful punch on the shoulder and went on to tell her how he could never do it as William, and before him Oolu, had to teach the skybax classes as well as make their reports. He also told her that he was having too much fun running deliveries and meeting people as an Apprentice Rider. But Croco confessed that in the future, he would become a Master Rider and possibly the Aerial Partner with his skybax Speedwing. Just then, Riojay stuck his snout in to nuzzle Croco.  
  
"Hey Rio," he said. "This must be a big day for you too...kaala deiny." Croco hugged him as he started to purr, holding his head close to the rider's chest.  
  
"I've wanted to return to the Basin, to where I came from," the deinonychus said in perfect English. "Kaala told me a long time ago about how she found me and I've been waiting for the chance to show civilized Dinotopians that a wild deinonych like me can fit in with society, and now I'm a Habitat Partner with my lifelong companion...riojay Kaala." The three walked off towards where Speedwing was waiting.  
  
"So what do you guys say we go have dinner at the Black Fish Tavern to celebrate?" Croco asked. "It's only about fifteen minutes away on Rio's back." Kaala agreed and the rider was off to make their reservations while she mounted her friend and companion. As they exited the Dinotopian capital along the coastline. it started to sink in a little more. The next day, they would be off to Waterfall City to officially start their duties as Habitat Partners. But Kaala couldn't have been any happier, as it was Croco's idea for her to become one. And she would've never thought that Riojay would take her this far in life, as she was just a little girl, only six summers old and full of curiosity when she found him lost and looking for a friend.  
  
They would enjoy many years of happiness together looking over the jungles before Riojay made his journey to the World Beneath at the age of two hundred eight. But in between those years, they had to stop a rouge tyrannosaur clan from invading Treetown and figure out a way to convince the wild raptors that they were not the monsters that civilized people and saurians had always perceived them to be.Heartbroken by his passing, Kaala would resign as Habitat Partner and live alone for her remaining years. When she reached two hundred twenty-four summers, her health started to fade and she would soon pass away...ironically on the very day that she found Croco on the beach.  
  
As for Croco, he eventually became a Master Rider and the head skybax instructor in Canyon City. But he never became the Aerial Habitat Partner, as his protege Lesnar and his skybax Windracer would attain that status. Soon after Kaala's death, he retired to spend his last years at the Tentpole of the Sky, occasionally journeying to Canyon City to talk to the new crop of fliers or even to as far as Waterfall City. At the age of two hundred forty-seven, Croco would pass away during a visit to Canyon City. He was mourned by all Dinotopians as the day he died, the twelvth of May, would be named a national holiday and the next year, the first Festival of Free Spirit was celebrated because of the fact that Croco always had a free spirit and was always adventurous.  
  
But for those that were touched by Kaala and Riojay as well as Croco, they would never be forgotten. Every year on the eighth of January, a long, mournful cry from a tyrannosaur would be heard throughout Waterfall City and Sauropolis at midday and all Dinotopians would stop what they were doing to pay tribute to the life of Kaala, as that was the day she died. Soon, it was passed as a holiday to be called Carnosaur Day to honor the carnivorous species of Dinotopia. It was a fitting tribute for a woman and her deinonychus companion who dedicated their heart and soul to giving the residents of the Rainy Basin a good name and would forever be remembered as Kaala R'shay N'aya...the Sweet Girl of the Basin. 


End file.
